Cabbage Soup Gone Thai

by Tasha
(Boston, MA, USA)

Today was my first day of the cabbage diet, and since I tend to get bored easily with food, especially food that doesn't have a lot of flavor to it, I decided to tweak the diet a little. Each day will have it's own international flavor theme, resulting in variety.

Today I wanted a starting soup that would keep me motivated. I had already prepared myself for the week ahead by grocery shopping. I got the basics for the soup, then added my own touch:

One container of Thai Coconut Curry Broth (available in a 32 oz container in the international or soup broth section of the market)

A can of Thai style lite coconut milk (international section)

A small piece of ginger, cut up

One or two pieces of garlic, cut up--or to taste, but I only used two pieces.

Dash of curry powder--or to taste

a few small pieces of scallions to add a splash of color and a bit of flavor

a dash of Cayenne pepper--again, to taste. I like my food spicy, especially if it's Thai, so I did use a little extra. Or you can skip the pepper all together. Cayenne adds a big extra kick, so watch out how much you use!

dash of lemon juice

drop of olive oil

I also added a small amount of Five Spices Powder and chicken boullion so that I could avoid using salt.

Make the soup like normal, but substitute the basic broth/soup mix/whatever liquid you would normally use with the Curry Broth. You might not have to use all of the broth, depending on much soup you are making and how much broth you like.

Stir in a couple of table spoons of the cocnut milk.

Simmer for an hour or two, or until cabbage and vegetables are very tender.

Salt and pepper to taste, but to be honest, there was so much flavor I didn't really need to use any. It smells terrific, and it tastes so good that you'll forget that you are eating a diet cabbage soup.

Save the rest of the Coconut milk for making smoothies with fruit or with the bananas on banana/milk day, and you can even add a little to the brown rice when you get to that part of the meal.

Tomorrow I'm doing Mexican style cabbage soup. Let me know if you have any suggestions. I will let you know how it turns out.

Koh hai cha-roen ar-harn!

Hi Tasha,

thank you for this delicious cabbage soup recipe.The only thing I want to add is that you should watch the fat content of the coconut milk. Make alos sure that your salt intake with the soup is low.